Bonded over a mutual love of natural wine, this small group of friends set out to create their own natural expression in the predominantly grapeless, but fruit rich land of Sweden. With seemingly more apple trees than people and a cultural history of foraging wild fruit, Brutes has connected the two in parallel with their inspiration for winemaking to produce "cider" that aims to blur the lines between cider and wine.
Just outside of Stockholm, on the islands of Lake Mälaren, the apples and pears are handpicked from old orchards that have been largely forgotten, but luckily not abandoned. The fruit is crushed and then left to macerate for varying lengths before pressing. The maceration gives structure and body to cider in similar ways it does to wine, in particular "orange" wines. This approach can produce something thoughtful on it's own or provide a solid base to be seasoned with wild fruits (sloe, blueberry, crabapple) and other garden fruits (pear, cherries, quince, aronia).
Each vintage brings refinement and new exploration with this vast palette of fruit with the hopes of creating something true to the terroir, but also fun and unique. Everything is wild fermented, nothing in, nothing out. It's alive, maturing over time, phasing in and out of various stages, eventually settling into a sweet spot.
